"There'll be no challenge to Joh Bjelke-Petersen, as long as Joh Bjelke-Petersen wants to stay," Queensland's former premier told the media in 1987.

Within weeks of making those remarks to the press, Sir Joh's political career was over.

It was a time when king of pop Michael Jackson was top of the charts, and plans for Brisbane's World Expo 88 were in full swing.

Monday's release of the 1987 cabinet minutes from the Queensland State Archives sheds light on the political demise of Sir Joh, whose 19-year reign as state premier came to an abrupt end on December 1 that year.

The documents show the Queensland premier's desire to have control over minor decisions, like hiring mid-level department staff and buying individual police vehicles.

He would also blindside fellow ministers by making oral submissions on cabinet items, giving them next to no time to research or consider their position.

Historian Jennifer Menzies said what the documents do not show also tells much of the story, with no mention of the infighting dogging the Nationals and "absolutely dire" state of the Queensland economy.

"There was an unemployment level of 11 per cent and 9 per cent inflation, but the cabinet had no capacity to actually do anything to respond to that," Ms Menzies said.

"They didn't have the kind of strategic capacity to the way they managed the cabinet processes, so I think it shows it was a government that was coming to the end of the way it operated.

"They'd had — for a long time — an incredible focus on agriculture and in 1987 mining, for the first time, became the largest export industry."

Distractions may have cost Sir Joh

Buoyed by a 1986 state election victory, Sir Joh staged a failed bid to run for prime minister interstate and international travel meant he missed crucial cabinet meetings, leaving others in charge.

Sir Joh announced he would take on the Labor socialists in Canberra and destroy them.

Deal sought with communist Romanian dictator

The papers give a surprising insight into a commercial deal almost struck between Queensland and a communist Romanian dictator.

As Queensland sought its place on the world stage, Sir Joh was seeking trade deals with a controversial leader — Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu.

Sir Joh had proposed to swap Queensland coal in exchange for Romanian-built trains and oil.

The deal never got off the ground but Ceausescu did accept an invitation from Sir Joh for him and his wife Elena to come to Expo 88, but by then the premier had been ousted.

In December 1989, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed by firing squad at a military base in Romania after a short trial held by an Exceptional Military Tribunal.

Development applications

Controversial development applications went ahead under the recommendation of so-called 'minister for everything' Russ Hinze, with the Queensland government over-ruling local councils to the benefit of developers.

Mr Hinze used his power to rezone the Queen Street Mall in Brisbane's CBD without following due process, because the developer feared regular town planning rules would attract objections and delay the project.

Mike Ahern was appointed premier, leading the Nationals the following day in parliament.

"Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was a leader who wrecked, without sympathy, the lives of too many decent Queenslanders for short-term political ends," then-Opposition leader Nev Warburton told Queensland parliament.

"He relied for this power on a rigged electoral system that is grossly offensive to fundamental democratic rights."